The Unkindest Cut

It was a bright and early Monday morning when ‘Ben’, the resident him-boy or man-whore, came into the student lounge I was studying in complaining that a woman had turned him down for sex when she learned he wasn’t circumcised. He was so upset that, at the tender of age of eighteen, he began talking about having his foreskin removed, convinced that it would improve his chances with the ladies.


Like all man-whores, a willing woman renewed his confidence, and he went on skirt chasing, having forgotten any thoughts of undergoing the popular “snip, snip”. Although brief, my meeting with Ben got me thinking about female preferences when it comes to the penis. Was the woman’s rejection an exaggerated version of the reaction most women have towards the uncircumcised male, or was this an exception?


When it comes to the penis, do women prefer it cut, or uncut?


Circumcision, as defined by the Circumcision Information and Resource pages, is the surgical removal of the sleeve of skin and “mucosal tissue” that normally covers the head of the penis. In Jewish communities, when a male child is eight days old, the family anaesthetizes him with wine, snips the foreskin, and with a big “Mazel-Tov”, welcomes him to the world. This procedure is also practiced by Muslims and the non-religious, though the latter tend to do it for hygienic reasons.


Pop culture has imposed a taboo on the foreskin. On television and in women’s magazines, the foreskin-free penis is praised as being cleaner, and nicer to look at. The juicy sex tips provided by magazines like Cosmopolitan never take the foreskin into account, as though assuming the touching, jerking and sucking advice they give will be employed only a man who is circumcised. They never discuss whether women prefer men cut, assuming that all women do.


Ben’s experience convinced him that women preferred men circumcised for aesthetic reasons. As someone repulsed by the thought of going down on a guy who’s got the extra stuff at the end, I’m warning you now that my perspective is more than a little biased. I’ve never had uncut, and don’t intend to. For this issue, I decided not to ‘Google’ this topic for my research, suspecting that my searches would only bring me to porn sites.


In order to get a broader perspective, I turned to a much more personal source: my girlfriends.


This strange, but wonderful group of women range from the prudish to the outright adventurous. They come from a wide variety of socio economic backgrounds, and range in ethnicity from Italian, to Somalian, to Jewish, to French Canadian. They are all in their early twenties, and have the confidence and integrity of the quintessential modern woman. In my search for answers, I called them, emailed them, and left messages with my question, and sure enough, got a series of insightful replies.


My friend “Winnie” began by asserting that she preferred men uncut. Of her three boyfriends, two were circumcised, one, was not. Her preference had a lot to do with the fact that her first lover’s circumcision had been botched “in the worst kind of way”. When I asked her to elaborate, Winnie began describing how her boyfriend’s foreskin had only been removed on one side, and that an incompetent surgeon had taken part of the head of his penis with it. The result was so disastrous that the hole was no longer at the tip of his penis, but on the side. As he was her first, she said nothing at the time, but later confided to me that his penis looked as though someone had bitten part of it off. The unfortunate state of his penis made sexual acts extremely difficult. Acts that stimulated uncircumcised side of his penis hurt the other, more sensitive side.

Winnie’s second lover was also circumcised. As he lived in a community where most of the guys weren’t, he was made fun of by other boys. The absence of the foreskin made him far more sensitive. According to Winnie, the foreskin made the head of the penis much larger but when it comes to sex itself, the use of a condom removes any difference in sensation between the circumcised and uncircumcised. Hand jobs are an entirely different story, as the extra “sock” of skin makes giving manual pleasure much easier by eliminating the need for lubrication. By moving the skin around the shaft, the necessary pleasure is provided without having to worry about chafing. Winnie’s preference is a qualified one, for while likes the uncut better, she placed continued emphasis on the importance of keeping the space between the penis and foreskin clean.


“Hygiene is key,” she said. If you have male children, teach them to clean it, she insisted. Two seconds of cleaning can make a world of difference. Without regular cleaning, a nasty build-up develops under the foreskin that is not only disgusting, but has a putrid odour; gross but true.


“Jane” agreed with Winnie that condoms make the different between cut and uncut irrelevant. However, she did say that when it comes to oral sex, the foreskin is more of a hindrance than a help, pushing itself into her mouth, and bumping up against her teeth. At the same, she agreed that jerking a guy off is much easier when there’s a sleeve of skin to play with. When I asked if she preferred it with or without the extra, she didn’t specify, claiming that there were advantages and disadvantages to both.


My friend “Rebecca” was a little more forceful. Like Jane and Winnie, Rebecca had had both circumcised and uncircumcised men. She told me flat out that she preferred circumcised men because it made the penis more aesthetically pleasing, and made oral a sex a lot easier. In spite of her preference, told me that it is the quality of the man that is important.


“Good sex is from a good lover, not the shape of his cock” she added.


“Judy” was with Winnie in her preference of the uncut male, but for different reasons. Having had both cut and uncut men, she decided that the uncut male was better. She preferred the appearance of the uncircumcised penis because it looked less manipulated by human nature, and generally felt better during all sexual acts. Like Winnie, Judy stressed the importance of male genital hygiene. According to, uncut is better, but only if it’s clean under the skin.


“I hate smelly” said simply.


“Diana” has had a total of four men; two circumcised and two uncircumcised. All of them were virgins when she met them. Diana prefers cut men for the same reason Winnie likes them uncut. Unlike Winnie, Diana found uncircumcised men far more sensitive than cut men, to the extent that during sex they often came before she did, which, like any modern woman, she found incredibly frustrating. She agreed that giving hand jobs was much easier with a guy who still had his foreskin, but nonetheless insisted that overall, the circumcised man looked a lot nicer down there. As a favour to me, she asked her classmates about what they liked, and the women unanimously declared that circumcised was better because it’s cleaner and more aesthetically pleasing.


The varied accounts of my friends provided useful information about the presence of the foreskin in sexual activity. When it comes to sex, the difference between a guy who’s cut, and a guy who isn’t is irrelevant. Oral sex is easier with a guy’s who’s circumcised, while hand jobs are easier with a guy who isn’t. While there are a lot women who prefer their men circumcised, there are also a lot who like them natural. For the man that gets turned down because his penis looks a certain way, have faith, there are women out there who prefer you to everybody else; it’s just a matter of finding them. If you’re uncircumcised, remember: hygiene is key. No woman wants to have to deal with the stench, sight, and taste of a guy who can’t take two seconds to clean under the hood. While this article is about circumcision and female preference, there is a bigger point to be made here. When it comes to sex, it’s not the appearance of the penis that matters, but the quality of the lover. If you’re not considerate enough to attend to your partner’s needs and make sure that she gets off, then, my friend, circumcised or not, you just don’t cut it.